I'm surprised nobody has Barry Ryan in their teams. He has been outstanding in games against us and just pips Murphy in my opinion.
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I'm surprised nobody has Barry Ryan in their teams. He has been outstanding in games against us and just pips Murphy in my opinion.
PFAI team for FD:
Doyle (Wex)
Horgan (Gal)
Barrett (Gal)
Sullivan (LTFC)
Desmond (Shels)
Connolly (Shels)
Connolly (Galway)
Rice (LTFC)
Furlong (Wex)
Shaw (LTFC)
O'Sullivan (LTFC)
Furlong, O'Sullivan and Ryan Connolly up for POTY
is that official?
Yeah just announced a while ago
delighted for Danny. He had a horrible time in Cork. Great to see him performing again and to be recognised for it. Delighted for Paddy Sull too. He was very popular here, played very well for us at a difficult time for the club.
Presume Davy O'Sullivan will most likely win player of the year. He should have won it last year really. 50 plus goals in his first two full seasons in the league is good going.
It's not a Golden Boot award. Ultimately Gorman's goals helped his team to the title, O'Sullivan's didn't.
Fair point I suppose it's usually someone from the champions that wins it but he was the outstanding player in the division last year IMO, more so than this year even. Though he was very good again obviously. It was our defence that cost us the league last year.Quote:
Originally Posted by atfconline
Picked 8 of 11 in my team! And they've gone 4-3-3 not picking a right mid where I struggled too! Haven't noticed Lee Desmond at all so can't really comment. Amazed Dylan Connolly wasn't nominated for POTY.Quote:
Originally Posted by Longfordian
Without him Shels would have been 4th.
I only really noticed Desmond in our last game v Shels in Tolka he was outstanding. Strong, pacy and good on the ball. Agreed on Connolly also, tremendous prospect.
O'Donnell
Gannon Murray Gartland Massey
Byrne Towell Healy Horgan
Hoban Fagan
Seems wrong to have the UCD keeper in there but he has been largely brilliant & had so much work to do with that sham of a team, I would have Barry Ryan as an option in goal but missed too many games, for same reason I have left Dave Webster out, Bray's level dropped so far with him out.
Kinda torn about Towell as never impressed when I saw him but appeared key from reports.
Honorable mentions to
Rory Gaffney
Mick Daly
Chris Forrester
Kevin Devaney
Billy Dennehy
Robbie Benson
Murray/Doyle (no stand out really)
Horgan Sullivan Barrett Hand
Ryan Connolly Rice K O'Connor (Waterford)
Dylan Connolly Walsh Sullivan
Dylan Connolly FD POTY, he was absolutely brilliant
He's certainly worthy of consideration. May have dropped a clanger or two too many to be selected though. The one against Athlone at home in particular could be costly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bunny Kelly
PFAI Team of the Year
McNulty
Gannon
Boyle
Gartland
Bermingham
Healy
Towell
Horgan
Hoban
Fagan
O'Sullivan
6 Dundalk, 3 Cork, 2 Pats
POTY nominees:
Fagan
Healy
Hoban
Towell
Mark McNulty to my mind has been by far the best keeper in the league this year, and I was very surprised to see so many people skipping over him hear. I'm genuinely surprised O'Sullivan has made it, not that he's not deserving, I just didn't think they'd go with three strikers.
I'd love to see Healy win player of the year, but I suspect Towell will get it.
Not many mentioned O'Sullivan, perhaps as people though it would be 4-4-2. Murray is unlucky to be left out but Gartland has some amount of goals for a defender. That probably swung it.Quote:
Originally Posted by El-Pietro
Who would have predicted at the start of the season that McPhail and Fahey would not make the list.
Healy ahead of Morrissey? Bit of a suprise on the bais of what I've seen of Cork.
I would agree on Murray v Gartland. I was picking Gartland alongside Murray in my team but I was going on his 9 goals to squeeze out Boyle. I don't see either regularly enough.
Morrissey has had a brilliant season but he doesn't do much that is that flashy. Healy is a name, he has that bicycle kick and Soccer Republic focus on him a lot. It is telling how poorly we performed when Morrissey missed a period of games earlier the season. Though we seem to be dealing with absence at the moment.
Surprised McNulty got in as I think that Ryan and Murphy have been better this season but it's a hard one to argue against as don't see him every week. However shocked that O'Sullivan got in instead of Conan Byrne as he has really stood out for Pats and has bagged a load of goals.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
It's impossible to choose a perfect team, but this is certainly a bit of an odd line-up with three strikers, and none of the back four from the team with the best defence. Still, player by player there's not too many surprises
Slightly surprised to see no mention of Damien McNulty or Packie Mailey in FD team. Harps defence were arguably the best in the division for about 75% of the season and had we held onto Keating for the season we may well have squeezed into a play off place.
Conan Byrne remains the most under rated player we have
With keepers it's sometimes difficult to judge them on a couple of matches unless they really stand out. McNulty wouldn't have had much to do against a lot of teams, so fans wouldn't have seen him do much, whereas Murphy and Ryan were making great saves against absolutely everyone as they had crap defences in front of them.Quote:
Originally Posted by El-Pietro
Surprised Healy made it at all, to be honest. Like other people, any time I've seen Cork Morrissey has been the guy running the show and easily one of the tidiest players in the league. Glad to see O'Sullivan make it too - I reckon that's on the back of a lot of defenders voting because they'll remember they've had one of their hardest games every time he's played them.
He was a roofer this time this year, now hes in the team of the year and has helped bring City to the brink of the title. It's a crazy story. We didn't expect him to be so good.
You may be right about the defenders voting there because he wins a ridiculous amount of headers considering hes only about 5 10.
There's a subtle difference between having the best defence in the League and having a team that is set up in an unbelievably negative fashion, that are set out primarily to contain the opposition. Your measly 26 goal haul reaffirms that point, Keating or not, you would were never really in the running for a playoff place because your team carries no threat.Quote:
Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954
Quote:
Originally Posted by seand
Lets wait to see which defence has conceded the least league goals over the course of the season!
Can't argue too much with that team. Conan Byrne and Billy Dennehy could feel aggrieved about not getting it but not much besides that.
It's the players that pick it as well so they would know better than ourselves who have done well based on playing against them
Spot on. Harps fans (well Nigel anyway, not sure about the other 4 of them) consistently overestimate how good they are. They were never going to make the playoffs. Finishing 5th is the limit for them, and they managed that. They were miles off ourselves, Shels and Galway. And while Wexford probably overachieved this year, they're still much better than Harps.Quote:
Originally Posted by Olander
For the official PFAI team of the year, Chris Shields must be the unluckiest player not to be in it. Has been immense all year and arguably Dundalk's most important player. Without him doing all the dirty work in midfield we couldn't have played the way we done all year.
Edit: Actually want to add in, I am surprised Billy Dennehy isn't in it too.
Disappointed for Conan Byrne after a great season, the other let down was no young player of the year nomination for Sean Hoare, think Gannon would have got it but think Hoare merited the nomination after an immense first season as a regular , a very classy player for his years composed and not a bit of malice in his play.
I'm not.Quote:
Originally Posted by Guinney
It's strange that fellow players don't appreciate players like him.Quote:
Originally Posted by Guinney
Is Richie Towell the best midfielder in the league?Quote:
Originally Posted by Guinney
That question brings to mind the famous John Lennon quip:
Chris Shields has been magnificent for Dundalk this seasonQuote:
On one occasion when John Lennon was asked if Starr was the best drummer in the world he replied, tongue in cheek: “He’s not even the best drummer in the Beatles.”
Odd how everyone else rates Dennehy much higher than city fans. He scores important goals but is anonymous for a lot of the time. There's been calls from our fans for him to be dropped, never mind being in the team of the year. Think it shows how hard it is to judge when you don't see them every week.
Oh god no, we were awful for the entire second half of the season once we lost all attacking threat. The defence is all that kept us going really.Quote:
Originally Posted by De Town
Harps were about as close to Cobh as they were to a playoff place. Keating or no, Harps weren't getting next nor near the playoffs this year imo.
A tongue-in-cheek take on the Team of the Year that was destined for another location but didn’t fit in the end…. (i.e. it would’ve been in the Dundalk v Cork programme id we’d had won the league in advance of that fixture)
With the season coming to a close The Spectator assembled a committee of leading experts, over a pint or three, to pass judgment on the League of Ireland team of the season. Here are the results of the Lilywhite Lounge jury…
Goalkeeper
Nominees: Cherrie (Dundalk), Clarke (St Pats), Murphy (Shamrock Rovers)
Winner: Peter Cherrie
Left back
Nominees: Bermingham (St Pats), Byrne (Shamrock Rovers), Massey (Dundalk)
Winner: Dane Massey
Right back
Nominees: Gannon (Dundalk), Lenihan(Cork), Madden (Shamrock Rovers)
Winner: Sean Gannon
Central defenders
Nominees: Boyle (Dundalk), D Dennehy (Cork), Gartland (Dundalk), Hoare (St Pats), McEleney (Derry), Rossiter (Dundalk)
Winners: Andy Boyle and Brian Gartland
Defensive midfield
Nominees: Higgins (Dundalk), O’Donnell (Dundalk), Shields(Dundalk)
Winner: Chris Shields
Central midfield
Nominees: Fahey (St Pats), Healy (Cork), Towell (Dundalk)
Winner: Richie Towell
Left midfield
Nominees: Brennan (St Pats), B Dennehy (Cork), Horgan (Dundalk)
Winner: Daryl Horgan
Right midfield
Nominees: Byrne (St Pats), McDermott (Dundalk), Meenan (Dundalk)
Winner: Darren Meenan
Attacking midfield
Nominees: Byrne (Dundalk), Forrester (St Pats), Mountney (Dundalk)
Winner: Kurtis Byrne
Forwards
Nominees: Fagan (St Pats), Hoban (Dundalk), McMillan (Dundalk), Patterson (Derry)
Winner: Pat Hoban
So, our independently verified, official, Spectator League of Ireland team of the season looks like this:
Cherrie (Dundalk); Gannon (Dundalk), Massey (Dundalk), Gartland (Dundalk), Boyle (Dundalk); Shields (Dundalk), Towell (Dundalk), Horgan (Dundalk), Meenan (Dundalk), Byrne (Dundalk); Hoban (Dundalk). Manager: Collins (Derry)… just kiddin’… Horgan (Drogs)… oh, ok then… Kenny (Dundalk).
Should have gone ahead with this, it would have brought Cork to the point of spontaneous combustion.Quote:
Originally Posted by seand
Quote:
Originally Posted by seand
good man SeanD.
you made me laugh out loud when i read the bold part.
obviously the whole thing was thrown together in a handful of seconds, but I thought Luke Byrne was fairly highly regarded? Looked half decent any time I saw him at Bohs/Rovers? Far be it from me to give undue credit to a Hoop!Quote:
Originally Posted by placid casual
In fairness it doesn't take muchQuote:
Originally Posted by White Horse